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September 14, 2012

Getting Over Two Cold-Calling Hurdles

There are some straightforward ways that financial advisors can tackle the challenges of cold calling

I announced the survey in my September Research Magazine article, “Cold Calling 2012.” If you have not read it, I would (of course) highly recommend it. Catch it here.

As my way of saying “Thanks” for taking my survey, I will send you a copy of all my Research Magazine articles on cold calling published through 2012.

A key question on my survey is: What is the most difficult part of the cold calling process? Please describe in detail.

I then took all of these answers and categorized them. Here are the categories, some of the responses, and my analysis of the first two categories. I will share a detailed analysis of all the categories when the survey is done.

Meantime, the first two problems are:

Doing It

Dedicating a block of time every day to the process on a consistent basis.

Picking up the phone and starting.

Actually making the calls.

There were 21 answers, all similar to these, making this the largest category.

I have two theories on why it’s so hard for some people to make cold calls.

1) The successful advisor syndrome.

Forty-one percent of the people who responded to my survey have been in the business six years or longer, and 27.6% have been in business 10 years or longer.

These people know, whether conceptually or not, how much they are worth an hour as a financial advisor. (For those who may be new to this column, it’s about $1,000 per hour when that time is spent meeting with clients and prospects.)

For someone worth anywhere close to this number, it will be difficult to get motivated to do something that you know you could hire out for $20 an hour or less.

2) The failing cold caller.

39 respondents who answered my survey have been in the industry for more than three years. 57% of those opened less than 10 new households in the last year. So for them, it’s not working. It’s mighty hard to continue doing something that doesn’t work.

Rejection

Rejection feels painful. It’s also scary, since rejection is one less person who is a "possible" until he or she rejects you. Dumb, huh.

Maintaining focus through a large number of no answers.

Getting over the rejection.

I hate to tell you, but the problem is in the method.

The “cherries and pits” method that I teach totally handles rejection. It shifts you from being the rejectee to being the rejector.

The only way I know to prove this to you is have you try it. Go get one of my scripts, make 200 calls, and whenever anyone says, “I’m not interested,” you say, “Thankyouverymuch” and move on.

Only look for people who are interested and qualified right now. Ignore the rest.

You reject those who do not meet your criteria. Simple and very powerful.